Canning & Clyde Road Residents Association |
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The Book of Addiscombe Volume II The Book of Addiscombe Volume II looks at the people and events that have shaped our area. Many thanks to our 108 contributors. Chapter 1 - Addiscombe's Royal Connections In Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee Year we thought it fitting to start with a brief pictorial look at Addiscombe's royal connections.
Chapter 2 - It's in the Soil Locally the Norbury Brook is known as the Beverley Water or Spring, since its prominent point of presence is indeed the Beverley Club and Scout Hall in Grant Road. From there it appears to meander through the old railway lines to Capri Road then Dalmally Passage, and Northway Road before making its way under the huge triangle of railway lines at Selhurst on its way to Thornton Heath. From there it runs to Norbury, the River Graveney and the Wandle. The Norbury Brook is clearly shown on the map on page 4. By that time the Canal Mead (or Coldstream) had been filled for building land but remains the undergournd spring head for the brook. This means that the Coldstream - now the grounds of Havelock House - is the natural spring headwater for the Norbury Brook. Steve Collins, Paul Sowan Chapter 3 - Cherry Orchard Road 1847 to 1939 This chapter contains fantastic hand drawn pictures of Cherry Orchard Road from 1868 to 1939. In 1847 the main development in Cherry Orchard Road was centred on the junction with Cross Road. In fact, Cherry Orchard Road officially ended here. It continued to the Lower Addiscombe Road as Lees Road (hence Lees Road Cottages). The area mainly consisted of labourers' and artisans' cottages. During the 1850s, Leslie Park Road was developed along with the east of Cherry Orchard Road (formerly Lees Road). This included the building of the Leslie Arms. Paul Jordan Chapter 4 - Along Cherry Orchard and Morland Roads A photographic walk in the past. Number 1 Morland Road, known as 'Glendalough', in 1902 was owned by Mr J M Hobson MD, who had a thriving practice here. His surgery was held in the square block to the front, which is now a Co-op supermarket.
Chapter 5 - Getting Around Bill Maile remembers a ride on one of the Addiscombe trams as a child in 1917. 'Aged 12: my first trip to 'Bingham Halt' on the tram from George Street via Cherry Orchard Road. Nothing but loops and stops, quite some ride, not smooth as the main road cars. Pitch and toss, swishing from left to right. More liken to riding a "Bronco". I was amazed at the number of times that we changed and stopped for other trams to pass ... Not to my liking, too slow. Next day I still felt the bruises and aches of that ride. No wonder the bus went along another road.' Bill Maile Chapter 6 - Southward Ho! Heron's Croft (old building by Sandilands tram stop) - 'My grandparents, Mr and Mrs H Chase Mason, bought 96 Addiscombe Road in the 1930s and moved in with my father, Paul Mason, then a boy who attended Winton House School. There was a very old elm in the garden and the house was originally known as The Elms. My grandfather changed the name because of the local connection with the Heron family ... When I was young, Heron's Croft was not painted on the outside and there was a blotch on the upstairs wall facing Number 94, where there used to be a window; it had been removed during Oliver Cromwell's time because of a tax imposed on windows.' Arlette Berlitz Chapter 7 - Dynasties The Rootes - The Rootes moved to Addiscombe in 1898 and spent the next 80 years as residents and businessmen ... William Benjamin started the family business (French polishing) at 20 Lower Addiscombe Road in 1921 ... The Roote business flourished during the 1920s and '30s. Both my dad and his brother, Arthur, worked in the shop although both eventually joined Webber and Harrison. None of the next Roote generation became French polishers so, when Will reached 'retiring' age, he decided to close the business and at the start of the Second World War the door of the shop shut for the last time. Brian Roote, Cliff Marlow The Hockeys - Shirley Robert's grandfather, Thomas 'Harry' Hockey, formed a business of grocer's shops along with Herbert Brimacombe. She describes the Shirley Road shop: In front of the right-hand counter were those wonderful boxes of biscuits with glass lids to enable the customer to choose their delights. The last tin in the line was filled with a selection of broken buiscuits to be sold at a slightly reduced price. When a customer bought granulated sugar, it was weighed and then put into a cone of blue 'sugar paper', twisted at the base ahd then folded neatly at the top. Shirley Roberts Chapter 8 - Shopping in Addiscombe Royal Parade - Back in the 1940s and '50s, the row of shops opposite the Black Horse was a community in itself. Bill Wood's father moved into the butchers at 304 Lower Addiscombe Road in 1923. The living quarters above the shop were reached by passing along an alleyway and up the stairs. At Christmas the butchers boys used to sit on the lower stairs plucking turkeys, whose feathers would waft up to the flat above, much to Bill's mother's annoyance. Bill Wood Chapter 9 - Local Businesses This is the story of a UK and world-standard-setting enterprise. Their mission: to deliver fresh milk that was safe to drink. That might sound simple, but at the end of the 1920s, milk distribution remained haphazard and often unhygienic. The Co-op's aim was to provide the Croydon area with fresh bottled pasteurised milk with a 36-hour delivery time from udder to doorstep. And they did it. Such an undertaking required huge amounts of water for bottle washing, sterlisation and the pasteurisation process itself. Their chosen site was in Leslie Park Road on the corner of Lebanon Road. Steve Collins Chapter 10 - Growing up in Addiscombe Cliff Marlow remembers that pocket money was not given as a right, but had to be earned. In the '30s he would help the Co-op baker deliver bread by pushing a cart for four or five hours to earn 3d (11/2p). In 1942, aged 12, he started working as an errand boy at Harry Leppard's off-licence at 101 Lower Addiscombe Road (now Sodha's). Wages were a little better by now - he earned 10 shilliings (50p) a week working two evenings and all day Saturday. Cliff tells us that, although there was not a lot of spare cash around, the young people did not feel deprived. They may not have got everything they wanted but they did have everything they needed. Cliff Marlow and David Blake Chapter 11 - School Days Woodside was, and still is, an infants and junior school. My earliest recollections of school are of sitting with 35-40 others, learning multiplication tables and spellings by rote, using slate boards and chalk. Each morning we had a bottle of milk containing one-third of a pint. During winter these bottles would be placed around the huge guarded fire to warm but quite regularly there would be a 'pop' when the milk would get too hot and explode through the cardboard cap. David Gowers Chapter 12 - Churches Most parishes begin in a small way and then slowly, through the years, build up into something far beyond the vision of their original founders. The Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Annunciation in Addiscombe is no exception. It began life in a hall built for the Primrose League on the left corner of Brockenhurst Road and the Lower Addiscombe Road (on the site now occupied by Sidda House) in the early 1900s and was later converted into a button factory during the First World War. Paul Moynihan Chapter 13 - Sport In the early years of the 1950s it was the 'done thing' on a Sunday morning for many lads to congregate at Bingham Road Rec Ground for a 'kick around'. Sides were organised and, depending on the number who turned up, the games would comprise anything from nine-a-side to fourteen-a-side. The goals consisted of piles of coats and, as there were no lines marked out, the entire Rec would become the pitch ... Some time in late 1952 or early 1953 a number of the 'Sunday Morners' got together and decided they would form their own football team and apply for entry into the Croydon and District Football League ... It was decided they would call themselves Bingham Athletic. Bill Angell Chapter 14 - Music & Dance The Trojans used to practise in Phil's parents' Morland Road front room. The first Trojans gig was at the Ban the Bomb Club in Enmor Road in 1960. Clearly their music was of appeal. Apart from regular gigs at the West Croydon Star Hotel, they played the 100 Club and the Marquee in London. As was the thing to do at the time, they toured Germany in an old van with a 'Trojan Horse' mounted on the top with surprise light-up eyes! The fact that it was an old rocking horse mounted on springs did not detract from the impact. John Hobbs and Steve Collins Chapter 15 - Always a Marginal: Never a Dull Moment Addiscombe Ward is distinct in that, ever since its creation, it has always been a marginal. The very first contest in 1921 set the scene which has continued ever since: A Jackson (Ratepayers' Association) 1,208; Gilbert A Foan (Labour) 1,202. Although J E Taylor was elected unopposed as a Labour member in 1922, the Ratepayers' Association won again in 1923 and 1924. In 1925 a wave of discontent swept Croydon as the breakaway Ratepayers' Protection Association was formed in protest against rising rates. The six Ratepayers' Protection Association candidates were all elected ... in Addiscombe Major Rees won an exciting cliffhanger in a three-way contest. John Cartwright Chapter 16 - Rags, Riches & Ruin: A Scandal The rise in fortunes of James William Hobbs was meteoric. Born in 1843 in Portsmouth, the son of a joiner, Hobbs arrived in South Norwood in 1865 aged 22 as a foreman to a builder. In 1874 he started on his own as a builder and by 1878 was living in his Croydon office at Belmont House, Addiscombe Road with a steam-powered joinery in Morland Road on the site of what is now Burnham Gardens. By 1881 he was employing 800 men and boys. In 1883 Hobs was elected Councillor for East Ward (which included Addiscombe), Mayor in 1887 and 1888, and - the ultimate accolade - Alderman in 1889. By now he had purchased Norbury Park including the splendid mansion of Norbury Hall in which he and his family lived in the lap of luxury. Anne Bridge Chapter 17 - Second World War: The Home Front Addiscombe Home Guard Company HQ was a big old Victorian house opposite Hastings Road near Addiscombe Station ... At Company HQ there was a little model of a cannon, about 12" long and 6" high with large wheels at the side. On a night exercise against some regular troops Company HQ was about to be captured. The regular Army Sergeant came up the front garden path and shouted 'This HQ is captured!' An elderly, corpulent Home Guard Sergeant placed the little cannon on the top step by the front door and shouted 'Bang!' Everyone dissolved in laughter. Stanley Howey Chapter 18 - A Meander around Old Addiscombe I gather Ashleigh and India House (on the corner of Addiscombe Road and Clyde Road) were actually named by the East India Company in the 1840s. Prior to that it was a single house which in fact was smaller than the Ashleigh House ... in 1796 the Honorable Felinda Tollymarsh of the brewers (not that she was a brewer) lived in the house until the East India Company bought it ... they built on what would be the wing to Ashleigh and stable complex and put the French professor in Ashleigh ... Ashleigh was bought by Tom Easton. The Eastons had the house from roughly 1850 through to about 1930. Dick Boetius Chapter 19 - And Finally ... We have met many interesting and lovely people in the course of preparing this book and we are indebted to all for their generous help. One of the greatest thrills has been realising one afternnon that Cliff Marlow sitting on the living-room sofa was the long-lost cousin of Brian Roote due to come round that very same evening. Their reunion made it all worthwhile!
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